the patient

Before surgery:
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After surgery, below, the Patient is hooked up to his cold water pump that circulates in the pad on his shoulder for 4 days. And you can see his nifty black sling with a support. He got to bring them both home.



The Patient is comfortably watching MSU basketball as I write. The pain block is still in his system. He'll take Vicadin before "bed" to help when the block wears off.
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"Bed" will be a recliner chair, most comfortable apparently for rotator cuff patients.
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The surgery was fine, the doctor told me she repaired the rotator cuff beautifully, and she also found a bicep tendon that needed help. So she cut it! He has two on that bone after all! Who needs two? No, really, I trust her.
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You see I am not showing many pictures of the Patient. That's because I waited four hours in the waiting room.

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I slept.

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I read.










I talked with a very funny bus driver waiting for his wife.

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I drank coffee.

I watched CNN.

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And I took pictures.

"Sıkıldım," we say in Turkish, which means a combination of boredom and anxiousness. "I was restlessly bored." I wanted to know how things were going.

Happily, the first stage of the ordeal is over and successful. Now on to the rest of the story.

Thank you, thank you, thank you everyone for your wellness wishes for the Patient! We were, and are, touched and encouraged by that.

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torn rotator cuff

Today Don is having torn rotator cuff surgery.

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In August the rotator cuff on his right shoulder tore when he caught a ball while pitching for his kickball team.

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The rotator cuff is a group of muscles and tendons that keep the arm in its ball and socket. These tendons keep the shoulder muscles attached to the shoulder and arm bones. Don's rotator cuff tore from the shoulder bone, so the surgeon will reattach it with suture anchors (think staples).

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He won't spend the night, it's outpatient surgery. But recovery for rotator cuff surgery is long and painful, partly because there is not a lot of blood flow in tendons. He will have to endure 5 months of rehab.

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The surgeon will also remove a bone spur on his shoulder, and she'll look for any bursa that might be lurking.

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The images are from University of Wisconsin Health.

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New Huff

If you're so inclined, come see what I'm huffing about.

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yes, it was a happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving morning we woke up to snow.



Our dear little Phoebe bravely faces another Michigan winter. But this time she has a new birdbath at her back.

Bishop acted like she didn't remember what snow was. You can see Don, Mike and little Kaeley going for a walk, getting needed fresh air after being cooped up in the house.

I wish I could bring the hydrangea inside for chandeliers above the big table. I think the candles would make them sparkle.

It felt good to get outside into the air that smells like sunlight refrigerated in earth.

To see our kids at home together for a few days warmed my heart.

Indoors, Grandma is the cuddler of choice for little Kaeley.

Games, games and more games are what my husband's family loves at holidays. Peter brought "Guitar Hero" which was a challenge and a hit. You thought playing a real guitar was hard? Try playing this video game. The expert gives tips to his dad and sister.

"Cranium" is more my speed, with word and picture challenges.



I had to draw something to make my all women team guess more quickly than the men's team. This drawing is a "place." Can you guess what/where? We won this round. Wish I'd taken a pic of the men's drawing so you could see why.


Of course Thanksgiving is not all fun and games for the people doing the preparations. For all that good food, there is work, work, work. But when we do it together, it is fun.

Lesley cleaned and polished all the silver, bless her. We have a collection passed down from my mom's and my dad's families. I love using old things that my grandparents and aunt used. Imagine, those big serving spoons in my Grandma Olive's hands! Oh I love thinking about that.

I made pies, apple and pumpkin (remember, with Don's home grown organic pumpkins).

And I arranged flowers.

Don and I did the turkey, stuffing, potatoes, gravy and I don't know what else. And the dozen other people in our home contributed to the meal in their own ways, and they cleaned up with energy and joy.

It's all about the meal, you might think. All the days of preparation, the hours of cleaning up.

But the meal is only a symbol. Our fingers mixing the ingredients. Our hands moving the furniture around to make room for the big table. Our hands laying the white tablecloth as clean and fresh as the snow outside. The perfect tiny flowers bordering the table on the good china. The polished silver, the flowers like jewels, the white candles lighting our familiar faces more softly than usual. Why do we do this?

We do it because we love each other, because we're thankful for each other, and we don't want to forget that our closest family and friends deserve special attention and the best we can offer.

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Happy Thanksgiving

It didn't occur to me until after I was taking some still life shots in the living room (too cold and yucky outside to go out with the camera, without enough interesting payoff) that they were appropriate for Thanksgiving week.

Above, turkey feathers found on the farm, with a backdrop of a Navajo rug my great grandfather Arthur and great grandmother Carrie picked up on one of their mountain hikes out West, all sitting on a 200-year-old chair that belonged through the years to my mom's family. It made me so happy to realize the significant juxtaposition of an Indian rug and turkey feathers. I love that Thanksgiving started with a feast where immigrants and their helpers, the new land's native inhabitants, broke food together that they had worked together to raise. This human reliance on the kindness of strangers touches me, and I love remembering it.

Below, Don's grandparents Marshie and Guy behind the Thanksgiving cactus. Guy was one of 10 boys. These two were strong people. I met Guy, but not Marshie. Don says of his grandpa that he was a "brusque teddy bear." Guy was 6'4", and you can see Marshie was right up there too, at 5'11".

Wednesday we will welcome our children, and some of Don's family, for a few days of feasting, gratitude, family stories and laughing, and just treasuring each other. All too soon, all we have left are feathers, travel souvenirs and photographs.

I'm thankful this week, as always, but still, I'm huffing . . .

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digitalis

It's November in Michigan. These photos were taken this week.

When I was a little girl, we often had our first snow by Halloween, and our first real snow storm by Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is next week, the 22nd. Today it's 60°F (15°C). But it could still snow next week.

Last year Don planted an English garden, with a few digitalis plants. We also call them "foxgloves" in the U.S. They kind of look like gloves, don't you think?

Medicines from digitalis are called "Digitalin," used for cardiac help to control the heart rate for patients in artrial fibrillation.

But if you eat it, it is toxic and will cause vomiting and diarrhea. Believe it or not, some people do eat it to keep their weight down.

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See what I'm huffing about today.

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just so you know

I'm starting a new blog. Yes, me.

SYNCHRONIZING is my primary blog. Flying is my photoblog.

The new one is titled "HUFFING."

huffing
v. huffed, huff·ing, huffs 1. To puff; blow. 2. To make noisy threats; bluster. 3. To react indignantly; take offense.

It's a place for me to huff and puff once in a while. Yes, that Bono post got me wishing I had a regular room for that kind of discussion. I hope you'll visit and huff with me.

See what I'm huffing about today . . .

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